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Vegas officer, wife and son dead in murder-suicide

LAS VEGAS (AP) — A police lieutenant, his wife and son are dead after an apparent double murder, suicide and arson at their home, authorities said.

Clark County Sheriff Douglas Gillespie and other officials didn't immediately identify the police officer or the family members on Monday. Identifications would probably be made sometime on Tuesday.

"There was an incident today involving one if Metro's lieutenants," a somber Gillespie said in brief statement to reporters. "Several bodies were discovered."

Gillespie, the elected head of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, said the lieutenant was a 20-year veteran of the force. Gillespie spoke of "untold grief" for family members, friends and co-workers. He took no questions.

The sheriff said the investigation in Boulder City, about 20 miles southeast of Las Vegas, was being handled by police in neighboring Henderson.

Henderson police spokesman Keith Paul said a man called 911 at about 8:20 a.m. Monday and told a dispatcher he killed his wife and child, set his house afire and would shoot anyone who approached.

The home is owned by Hans Walters, according to Clark County assessor records. Many know Walters as a Las Vegas police lieutenant married to a former Las Vegas police officer, Kathryn Walters. The Las Vegas Review-Journal reported that she left the department in 2005.

Boulder City police arrived to find the homeowner with a handgun in the doorway of the burning house before he retreated inside and apparently killed himself, Paul said.

No shots were fired by police or SWAT officers from Henderson and North Las Vegas who later found the bodies of a 52-year-old man, a 46-year-old woman and a boy inside, Paul said. Officials said the boy was believed to be about 7.

"We're investigating the incident as a murder-suicide at this time," Paul said.